NaviGait: Navigating Dynamically Feasible Gait Libraries using Deep Reinforcement Learning

Abstract

Reinforcement learning (RL) has emerged as a powerful method to learn robust control policies for bipedal locomotion. Yet, it can be difficult to tune desired robot behaviors due to unintuitive and complex reward design. In comparison, trajectory optimization-based methods offer more tuneable, interpretable, and mathematically grounded motion plans for high-dimensional legged systems. However, these methods often remain brittle to real-world disturbances like external perturbations. In this work, we present NaviGait, a hierarchical framework that combines the structure of trajectory optimization with the adaptability of RL for robust and intuitive locomotion control. NaviGait leverages RL to synthesize new motions by selecting, minimally morphing, and stabilizing gaits taken from an offline-generated gait library. NaviGait results in walking policies that match the reference motion well while maintaining robustness comparable to other locomotion controllers. Additionally, the structure imposed by NaviGait drastically simplifies the RL reward composition. Our experimental results demonstrate that NaviGait enables faster training compared to conventional and imitation-based RL, and produces motions that remain closest to the original reference. Overall, by decoupling high-level motion generation from low-level correction, NaviGait offers a more scalable and generalizable approach for achieving dynamic and robust locomotion. Videos and the full framework are publicly available at https://dynamicmobility.github.io/navigait/